looking at a dark grey three year old and wondering what color he might end up? i’d love to see photos of your grey horses greying process.
TIA
They end up flea bitten grey. Which is actually not grey but appears white with spots usually.
It is such a shame as they are so gorgeous when young. They are still cute when older.
Not all turn out flea bitten. From what I can tell the flea bitten ones seem to carry sabino and it is sort of a reverse ticking/bird catcher thing.
He might dapple. He might not. He might fleck he might not. He might keep dark points and mane/tail, he might not.
Here is my horse’s progression. His base color is chestnut and he has less than half a dozen flea bites
2005 to 2014 progression
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All dark gray horses end up flea bitten gray? I have known steel grays that have gone from dark, to dappled, to white.
Like This horse for example. . Or here.
Per wikipedia:
“The flea-bitten pattern comes about because of somatic loss of the duplication that causes graying with age, enabling normal pigmentation to be reestablished. Generally only occurs in heterozygous Grays.”
Do you know the breeding of the horse you are looking at? Knowing the parents colors, and how their gray developed might give you some clues.
I don’t think there is any way to LOOK at a dark youngster, and predict accurately what type of gray they will develop into.
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great photos. thanks so much for posting!
appsolute… that dark racing photo is about what he is now… so those photos are very helpful. thanks!!
I said spots usually. As others said there can be any combination in between from no spots to dark points. A flea bitten grey is white. In the old days (in Australia) there was no such thing as a white horse. They were called grey if they had white hair and black skin. The only white horses were the lethal white.
Nowadays I have lost count of how many new colours are now called.
Oh and some more examples (hey I have an appaloosa, I love looking at how colors change!)
Silver Charm - as a youngster - and mature (he did get flea bitten spots). And he is heterozygous, as his sire was gray, and dam was dark bay/brown.
Spectacular Bid went from very dark - to very heavily flea bitten. Again, heterozyguos for gray.
Winning Colors went from very dark to quite white. She was also heterozygous.
[QUOTE=SuzieQNutter;8186504]
In the old days (in Australia) there was no such thing as a white horse. They were called grey if they had white hair and black skin. The only white horses were the lethal white…[/QUOTE]
We call them grays here as well (not “white”) - but there are some “white” horses, usually dominate white, or maximum sabinos (and they have pink skin).
Some few spot appaloosas also appear “white”.
He’s eighteen now and looks just about the same as last year. Still has the dark knees and hocks, and still has the white sock on his hind if you know where to look. (Particularly noticeable when wet.) The vet misses it each year now for the coggins, but I make him put it on.
In the winter he’s basically just a big fuzzy white fluffball, the flea bits disappear. The flea bits themselves actually didn’t appear until just about fifteen or sixteen.
Sad, because I’ve always hated fleabitten greys, but I knew what I was getting into all those years ago. :lol:
Then there are the descendants of The Tetrach. Many of them in their younger years have large white spots during their dark grey stage of development.
Egg sized Chubari pots.
Both her mother and my current saddle horse had them. People would compliment me and say they loved my Appaloosa. They were TB. Both turned milk white.
All grays end up either white, or fleabitten. Flea bitten grays can be lightly bitten, or very, very heavily bitten.
I suspect that all horses will end up flea bitten if they lived long enough. I just think the greying process happens at diffeent speeds for each individual. Homo greys tend to grey out the fastest.
My mare had two grey parents and she is milk white at 9, probably homo.
Here is my girl and her greying progression…
2 y.o. (2004)
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x21/susamorg/Kyra--6th%20birthday/8e75fa00-4b2c-47ff-8058-af66dcfbffda.jpg
4 y.o. (2006)
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x21/susamorg/Kyra--6th%20birthday/1202ba3c-24ff-4896-84e9-1dd4177ef7bc.jpg
7 y.o. (2009)
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x21/susamorg/Kyra--6th%20birthday/JoyandKyraMay090052.jpg
10 y.o. (2012)
http://i185.photobucket.com/albums/x21/susamorg/74587a39-73c7-4dec-a488-c25bfd91178f.jpg
This year she turned 13 and I don’t have a picture yet. She has just finished shedding out. She is moderately flea bitten this year. I will try to get a picture soon but she likes to lay in her pee spots and usually is various shades of yellow:disgust:.
Susan
Kyrabee, What a beauty!!!
[QUOTE=SuzieQNutter;8186466]
They end up flea bitten grey. Which is actually not grey but appears white with spots usually.
It is such a shame as they are so gorgeous when young. They are still cute when older.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=SuzieQNutter;8186504]I said spots usually. As others said there can be any combination in between from no spots to dark points. A flea bitten grey is white. In the old days (in Australia) there was no such thing as a white horse. They were called grey if they had white hair and black skin. The only white horses were the lethal white.
Nowadays I have lost count of how many new colours are now called.[/QUOTE]
Flea bitten grey has the spots. If it doesn’t have spots, it’s just grey (or steel grey, or dappled grey, or rose grey, etc), not flea bitten.
It is still true that light, even white appearing hair on dark skin is still called grey.
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I have some experience with greys and the greying process.
My slowest turning grey. http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r564/MikaliFarms/Capi%20Rossi%20by%20Carano%20x%20Landtinus/Capifoal-1y-2y-3y-5y-7y_zps9abaadb0.jpg
Bay that is turning grey http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r564/MikaliFarms/Ellamieka%20by%20Corland%20x%20Darco%20x%20Indoctro/Ella10d1y2y3y4y_zps61c164b5.jpg
Chestnut - has turned the fastest. http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r564/MikaliFarms/Finnan%20by%20Wittinger%20x%20Cornet%20Obolensky/finn%20lose%20chrome_zpsjjfpuu3r.jpg
Channge from this https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xft1/v/l/t1.0-9/1928291_14489305013_6356_n.jpg?oh=4eb829d85efa0e14600d8d1ddc7a6e5a&oe=55F6BDC8 to fleabitten https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xta1/t31.0-8/10644658_10155579120530014_49386914868881802_o.jpg
[QUOTE=mikali;8187297]
Chestnut - has turned the fastest. http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r564/MikaliFarms/Finnan%20by%20Wittinger%20x%20Cornet%20Obolensky/finn%20lose%20chrome_zpsjjfpuu3r.jpg[/QUOTE]
Nice horse.
[QUOTE=RutlandH2O;8187162]
Kyrabee, What a beauty!!![/QUOTE]
Thank you…she has been a keeper. Somewhat of a ballerina build but tough bone and feet even if they are dinky:yes:.
Susan
Similar question: If a horse was largely light grey around the age of 5, with the exception of light dapples and dark grey legs, could they still end up fully flea bitten and “white” up to 5 years later?
![http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r564/MikaliFarms/Finnan%20by%20Wittinger%20x%20Cornet%20Obolensky/finn%20lose%20chrome_zpsjjfpuu3r.jpg[/QUOTE]](http://i1172.photobucket.com/albums/r564/MikaliFarms/Finnan%20by%20Wittinger%20x%20Cornet%20Obolensky/finn%20lose%20chrome_zpsjjfpuu3r.jpg%5B/QUOTE%5D){kind=link}